to Mghanistan, then gave her a nighdy program, which was later cancelled. Phil Donahue's hour-long show was can- celled, although it was their top-rated program. Asked if there were too many formats and changes at MSNBC, Bob Wright, the C.E.O. of NBC, concedes, "That certainly is true recend Probably in the last two and a half years. That's a criticism, and it's a fair one." MSNBC's president and general manager, Erik Sorenson, who oversaw these changes, says, "I think we've lacked directional consistency. We over-experimented." MSNBC's ratings today are about a third of Fox's and half of CNN's. The president of NBC News, Neal Shapiro, who has nineteen television monitors in his office, appears to see the competition as one between the hedge- hog and the fox, with Fox as the hedge- hog. Shapiro praises Fox for "sticking to a few things," while noting that MSNBC did not. He said he now planned to put more NBC News talent on its cable network and build up its identification with the network. "By day it will be much more association with NBC. By night it will be smart analy- sis"-led by Chris Matthews and a new roster of talk-show hosts, including for- mer Minnesota GovemorJesse Ventura and such conservative commentators as former Congressman Joe Scarborough and former House Majority Leader DickArme "The premise of all these people is that our people don't just talk- they know what they're talking about," Shapiro said. He did not mention the right-wing radio talk- show host Michael Savage, who recendy got a weekly show and does "just talk"- so intemperately that Proc- ter & Gamble and Dell withdrew their advertising. A 11 "Cable news," Ailes says, "is : t 1 beginning to change the ð:: agenda of what is news." As for allegations of partisan coverage, Ailes will not admit that Fox is "right center," and insists, "I think I've forced the en- tire world to deal with 'fair and balanced.'" He portrays hImself as nothing less c;... c::: than a high-minded news executive: "I'm not saying I'm the answer. But. . . there hasn't even been a story where we've been accused of tipping some big story to the right in seven years. Why hasn't it hap- pened? Because we're honesdy trying to do a good job." CNN executives and others believe that Fox tips right all the time. In a thinly disguised slap at Fox, a marketing slogan touted CNN as "News. Not Noise." Dan Rather, of CBS, concedes that he doesn't watch much Fox News, but he thinks Fox is a reflection of Rupert Murdoch's political views. "Mr. Murdoch has a busi- ness, a huge worldwide conglomerate business," Rather says. "He finds it to his benefit to have media oudets, press out- lets, that serve his business interests. There's nothing wrong with this. It's a free country. It's not an indictable of- fense. But by any clear analysis the bias is towards his own personal, political, parti- san agenda. . . primarily because it fits his commercial interests." Neal Shapiro believes that the net- works are now more sensitive to any in- grained liberal bias. "We talk about it constandy;" he says. "I think it's sensi- tized newsrooms, and that's a good thing." It is widely supposed-and hard to document-that reporters at major news organizations tend to be more lib- eral, which inevitably influences cover- age. "I think the traditional broadcast ". : ". ". .,j.: ;. . ':' ;;/ , ! f '.' o ;èÆ l ' ; ; ..__.. ?: :::'?' -.):'.. : : t. .) }:. .:; t....; :-_:T :";7 nnl l .. '. ,,' ' , n ' "" :: " I I '.'; , \ \ -, tf. ;;: ' '! :, c:::. . c::... '- ....... ..c::: <:: .c:- .c::::. oor::::.. media does have a slighdy left-of-center bias," concedes Paw Friedman, who has produced NBC's and ABC's evening newscasts and was most recently the executive vice-president of ABC News. "It's not so much in what is said. It's in the choice of what to cover." The networks, he went on, tend to choose "social-agenda stories "-AIDS , povert,y-- "rather than stories about the flag or religion." Some conservatives believe that liber- als deliberately promote an agenda. Brit Hume's view is that the alleged liberal bias in mainstream media is unconscious. "My sense is that very few reporters, if any; that I've ever known are closet polit- ical activists or actually have agendas," he says. "There is, however, a very widely shared set of assumptions and values. It's very unusual to find reporters who are pro-life. It's unusual to find reporters who don't think more gun control is a good idea. It's not common to find reporters who are enthusiastic about the idea of a " tax cut. Todd Gitlin, of the Columbia Jour- nalism School, frames it somewhat dif- ferend He believes that Fox and the conservatives have bullied a "lazy" and servile press into submission. Of Ailes, Gitlin observes, "I think that his talent is percussive. Fox News has a tone. The tone is what it delivers. The tone is ur- gency-crashing noise. Occasionally; this '@ ' ,<, . , . , ' . 'ti. , ,.. "Let's update our will and go on vacation. "